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Conifer pruning made easy
by Anna | 23.10.2013 | 2 steps | easy | 5 - 20 Min. | 3 times | Rating: votes
A time to prune...conifers with this helpful guide.
Conifers are unlike many other woody plants in that they are often extremely slow growing and require very little pruning. Unless you have the famed leylandii, which can quickly soar into the sky unless you keep it well maintained, you’ll rarely need to cut your conifers. However, there are a few important tips to note if you are going to give your bush, tree, hedge or creeping conifer a clip.
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Step 1
Preparing
Plan to prune conifers during the summer months. Figure out how much of your plant you wish to prune before you begin to cut!
Use gloves and wear long sleeves when pruning conifers. They may not be thorny, but their needles can often cause a short-lived skin irritation or rash.
Conifer pruning is more about shaping a plant, than preventing fast growth. Pinching out the growing tips will normally halt upwards movement in conifers, and longer branches that have gradually grown too big over the years can be removed with loppers or a pruning saw.
Items:
Gloves
Step 2
Pruning
Remove the branches that are too big and cut the dead wood.
Use a pair of secateurs, loppers or hedge trimmers to gently shape and cut back growth, ensuring that there is some greenery left on each branch for new shoots to emerge from. Step back regularly to make sure you're creating the right shape.
You must be incredibly careful when pruning conifers not to cut in to old wood as most of them will not recover from this and you will be left with a brown and barren patch.
Clean up the waste after the job is done.
Items:
Sharp secateurs
Hedge trimmers
Loppers
Pruning saw for older and woodier stems
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